I believe my computer got infected with a virus. Windows Defender detected "TrojanDwonlaoder:Win32/Bredolab.AA" and "Trojan:Win32/Hiloti.gen!D". It claims to have successfully removed these. I restart my computer. When I log on, I get Data Execution Protection notifications about Rundl32 and the like. I also notice that "flvencoder.exe" is running and consuming 30% CPU. I did install this program (Gmax FLV encoder) and perhaps it contained a virus (though the program worked). I also don't recall that it should have started upon logging on.
None of this really matters, I don't think. I did a System Restore to a point before I installed Gmax FLV encoder (3 days prior). The restore completes successfully. Upon logging into my account, I get see the "Preparing Desktop" message and know that this is not good news. My user profile was not loaded. All of the data is there though.
What I first tried to do was logging into Safe Mode, and setting the reg. keys such that my old profile is loaded instead of a temporary one. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\
contains keys corresponding to each profile. The one corresponding to my now corrupt profile contains has ".bak" appended to it in the key name. I renamed this to remove the appendage and changed the value of the "State" key from 0x80 to 0x00. I try rebooting the machine and logging into this account, but yet another temporary profile is created. I also tried undoing the System Restore, but a temporary profile is still loaded.
I experienced these similar symptoms many months ago about 3 weeks after first installing getting this computer (Visa pre-installed). A hardware driver was causing many BSODs and spontaneous shutdowns. This managed to corrupt my user profile and I had to create a new one and manually transfer settings (thankfully I understand how most of my programs store profiles in AppData). When this happened many months ago, I tried creating new user profiles and pointing to the files from the corrupt one, but this never worked.
For this time around, the Event Viewer shows, under "Windows Logs/Application":
Warning User Profile Service: "Windows has backed up this user profile. Windows will automatically try to use the backup profile the next time this user logs on."
immediately followed by
Warning User Profile Service: "Windows cannot find the local profile and is logging you on with a temporary profile. Changes you make to this profile will be lost when you log off."
Finally my question:
Is there a convenient way to fix the corrupt profile? Was it System Restore that botched it up? Can I get Windows to tell me what the specific issue is?
and
What is the best way to transfer Windows settings (like Folder view options, keyboard layouts, and other settings that I don't really remember). I could do this manually, but I don't mind refining my IT skills with Windows (which I wish were better documented for this low-level stuff.)
Further Information: Since this has happened to me twice, I wonder if my setup is particularly prone. Therefore, I must tell you that I have a symbolic link at C/Users/<profile name> to a separate partition where the actual User Profile resides.
Thank you very much for any advice!
None of this really matters, I don't think. I did a System Restore to a point before I installed Gmax FLV encoder (3 days prior). The restore completes successfully. Upon logging into my account, I get see the "Preparing Desktop" message and know that this is not good news. My user profile was not loaded. All of the data is there though.
What I first tried to do was logging into Safe Mode, and setting the reg. keys such that my old profile is loaded instead of a temporary one. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\
contains keys corresponding to each profile. The one corresponding to my now corrupt profile contains has ".bak" appended to it in the key name. I renamed this to remove the appendage and changed the value of the "State" key from 0x80 to 0x00. I try rebooting the machine and logging into this account, but yet another temporary profile is created. I also tried undoing the System Restore, but a temporary profile is still loaded.
I experienced these similar symptoms many months ago about 3 weeks after first installing getting this computer (Visa pre-installed). A hardware driver was causing many BSODs and spontaneous shutdowns. This managed to corrupt my user profile and I had to create a new one and manually transfer settings (thankfully I understand how most of my programs store profiles in AppData). When this happened many months ago, I tried creating new user profiles and pointing to the files from the corrupt one, but this never worked.
For this time around, the Event Viewer shows, under "Windows Logs/Application":
Warning User Profile Service: "Windows has backed up this user profile. Windows will automatically try to use the backup profile the next time this user logs on."
immediately followed by
Warning User Profile Service: "Windows cannot find the local profile and is logging you on with a temporary profile. Changes you make to this profile will be lost when you log off."
Finally my question:
Is there a convenient way to fix the corrupt profile? Was it System Restore that botched it up? Can I get Windows to tell me what the specific issue is?
and
What is the best way to transfer Windows settings (like Folder view options, keyboard layouts, and other settings that I don't really remember). I could do this manually, but I don't mind refining my IT skills with Windows (which I wish were better documented for this low-level stuff.)
Further Information: Since this has happened to me twice, I wonder if my setup is particularly prone. Therefore, I must tell you that I have a symbolic link at C/Users/<profile name> to a separate partition where the actual User Profile resides.
Thank you very much for any advice!
